Page 336 of Once Upon a Fable

I wouldn’t survive another winter on my own.

Which meant I was choosing to end myself because she couldn’t stay here.

She couldn’t be trapped in this valley with me when the snow arrived and covered everything in thick white. She couldn’t exist in this house while my mind slowly disintegrated into nothing.

The amnesia would only get worse.

The blackouts could last for years.

I was a menace, a danger, and I would never be able to live with myself if I hurt her again.

I was her enemy, even if she no longer saw it.

I was her killer, even as she worked beside me and didn’t run.

She has to leave.

The moment she’d hacked off the chain, I’d known it.

The second she asked me to touch her harder, I’d crumpled inside because I finally knew that the kid inside me—the kid who’d sacrificed everything for those he loved—was still in there. Still fighting to begood, even if he’d disappeared for a while.

All it’d taken was Gemma choosing me, showing me that I could be wanted, preparing to help me survive a brutal season, and she’d resurrected a piece of me that I’d thought was long dead.

A piece that’d died the moment my family left and never came back.

A piece I didn’t want anymore.

I didn’t want to be the martyr. I didn’t want to put her needs before my own. I needed her help harvesting, prepping, and weatherproofing for the snow, I knew that.

But now? Christ, now I wouldn’t be able to accept her help. Because that damn piece of me that should’ve stayed dead was back. It was her fault. Her fault for being so fucking wonderful.

I hadn’t stood a chance, had I?

I didn’t stand a chance in hell of not falling for her kindness, empathy, and understanding.

But now I had a problem.

A massive, hellish problem.

I couldn’t put her in harm’s way. I couldn’t allow her to stay because I couldn’t guarantee her safety. Thanks to that part of me that still wanted to be good, I was choosing, once again, to do whatever it took to protect those I loved.

Which meant I...

Ah, fuck...

I love her.

I slammed to a stop in the dark corridor as horror slipped through me.

I.

Love.

Her.

She’d cracked my shields and ruined my mental walls.

She’d brought me right to the edge where my past and present did its best to merge.